Illinois needs to tax retirement income

By:  Diane Benjamin Those aren’t my words – Democrat Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs stated that.  Of course he claims only the “high income” earners will be the victims. Since Democrats don’t believe in learning from history, somebody should tell them that people don’t hang around a state to get their money stolen by taxation.  Every […]

We are all racist. Don’t worry though – it’s meaningless

By:  Diane Benjamin Another election year, more racists.  It is nothing more than a deflection of real issues.  We know Black Lives only Matter as a talking point.  Black Lives obviously don’t Matter in Chicago.  They also don’t matter if you don’t vote Democrat, Biden told us. Thinking about running for local office as a […]

Press Conference today:

Connie Beard, Chairman of the McLean County Republican Party, is holding a press conference today at noon at the History Museum in downtown Bloomington.  Gathering begins at 11:30. Video is available from Cities 92.9. Connie was awesome Connie will be talking about the business boycott list and the local defund the police movement. Support this […]

Defund Police? This is what it looks like

By:  Diane Benjamin Long time readers will know I’ve mentioned numerous times your local representatives have never been allowed to discuss the role of government.  Discussions of what should be funded and what shouldn’t has never taken place.  Budgets are done by staff with a little Council input on big projects.  They have never discussed […]

Time to go back to meeting in person!

By:  Diane Benjamin Unless the Bloomington City Council hasn’t recently left their homes, there is no reason they can’t meet in public.  Tomorrow marks Phase 4 – 50 people in a room.  Besides, there are several who should be wearing masks in public because they disgrace the office of alderman. Donna Boelen is behind the […]

More on BLM and local Democrats

By:  Diane Benjamin The Facebook discussion between 2 local BLM activists and two members of the local democrat party is worth your time.  See it on the McLean county Democrats Facebook page. Ky Ajayi of BLM made one comparison I find silly, but he was dead serious.  He compared abolitionists to the people who today […]

Remember Sprague’s gas station?

By:  Diane Benjamin Sprague’s is supposedly a Route 66 featured location, in person it is less than impressive.  This building came up during discussions Tuesday night with Town staff about 1 Normal Plaza.  The area residents were less than enthusiastic about the neighborhood attraction, appalled might be a better description. See this story for how […]

Breaking News: A plan to replace the airport soccer fields

By:  Diane Benjamin Illinois Fire Juniors and Prairie City Soccer League announced today a plan to build their own complex on 100 acres bordered by Raab Rd, Towanda Avenue, and Old Route 66.  the claim to have raised $3.5 million in cash, pledges, and in-kind donations.  None of it is from government, although it is […]

Rivian News

By:  Diane Benjamin Yesterday an on-line story claimed Rivian was consolidating all operations in Irvine California.  It implied production was moving there too.  That story was not correct. What Rivian is doing is moving engineering to California, they will be moving employees from Michigan to Irving.  Some other employees will be transferred to the Normal […]

Update: More on One Normal Plaza and the brewery

I just received another FOIA from Normal.  Supporting the brewery was the building owner, Rob Morger.  The Baby fold supported the zoning changes. By:  Diane Benjamin Last night the group of citizens opposed to establishments selling alcohol from a building in One Normal Plaza met with Town staff.  Normal brought the big guns: City Manager […]

Democrats vrs Black Lives Matter

By:  Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington Council meeting will reconvene Wednesday at 7:30.  Technical difficulties were experienced with the Live Stream.  Instead of having the meeting anyway and posting video today, the meeting was rescheduled. That was a good thing because it allowed Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill to comment on a Live event […]

BLM just lost all credibility

By:  Diane Benjamin Instead of condemning looters, vandals, and other behavior that can not be tolerated in a civil society, Black Lives Mater BloNo celebrates with their “comrades”: Black Lives Matter had a message worth discussing, they now have no credibility.  Violence and destruction of local businesses makes you immaterial especially when you agree with […]

Bloomington tonight

By:  Diane Benjamin http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1079&Inline=True The McLean County Regional Planning Commission  is getting paid by Bloomington: Look at where most of their funding comes from.  Who do you think they are really working for? Does the below apply to Vision Zero?  Not when the contract says information is confidential!  https://blnnews.com/2020/06/20/julie-hiles-contract/ End of an era for the […]

Chicago justice? Bond paid here for BLM supporters

By:  Diane Benjamin This confirms Black Lives Matter protesters were the ones looting and creating mayhem locally.  Nobody was in jail for “protesting”.  From Facebook: In the last few days this group in coordination with local Black Lives Matter bailed out 13 defendants.  Total bond was $87,705. 10 bonded out are facing charges of looting, […]

Normal Special Meeting Monday

By:  Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3668 This meeting has only one agenda item  – allocating local Motor Fuel Tax funds to fixing West College. Where the money is coming from: Besides not maintaining the roads Normal has and expecting grants to fix them, one troubling phrase is included: If that refers to Constitution Trail, there is no […]

Julie Hile’s contract

By: Diane Benjamin Normal paid the McLean County Regional Planning Commission $54,000 as their last meeting:  https://blnnews.com/2020/06/13/normals-asininity/ I previously wrote about Julie Hile’s involvement with the MCRPC here:  https://blnnews.com/2020/05/21/progressive-julie-hile/ I received a copy of the contract Hile signed with the MCRPC.  See it here:  Vision_Zero_Contract-HG-20190619_(Final_Executed)_redacted Excerpts: The contract was sign in July of 2019, so […]

Update: Brewery: From the possible owner

The Town does not own the building.  PIN #14-22-327-028.  County records state it is owned by Rob and Connie Morger. The Town does own the green space behind the building.  At the last Town Council meeting it was stated staff has invested lots of time in this project.  Why?  They don’t own it.  One more […]

A brewery in a Park?

Follow-up story  https://blnnews.com/2020/06/19/brewery-from-the-possible-owner/ By:  Diane Benjamin Last night I met with the group of citizens opposed to allowing a micro-brewery at the location below in One Normal Plaza.  I also drove through the area and took a lot of pictures.   Contrary to what the Town believes, Marc Tiritilli is not leading this group.  He attended […]

Are Democrats using Black Lives Matter?

By:  Diane Benjamin It’s obvious the Democrat Party only cares about blacks when they want their vote.  Obama was president with his sidekick Biden for 8 years.  They didn’t do prison reform or even talk about police reforms.  Neither did anything about the black unemployment rate or the black on black violence in Chicago.  Add […]

More proof Normal knows they are violating the law

By:  Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has waged war on it’s citizens.  Besides burying you in debt they want to make sure you can’t talk about it. They know their Public Comment policy is illegal. See this story 9/5/2019:  https://blnnews.com/2019/09/05/normals-illegal-public-comment-policy-2/ The Town knew LONG before the above – March 16, 2017! More than 3 […]

Proof Normal knew

By:  Diane Benjamin Remember the property taxes Normal paid Monday night that Pam Reece, Brian Day, and Chris Koos  couldn’t explain – or didn’t want to?  https://blnnews.com/2020/06/12/more-property-taxes-normal-doesnt-owe/ The parking lot at 100-104 Beaufort is part of the Trail East project.  From the Trail East documentation: A link to the above is not included on purpose, […]

Normal: No you don’t listen to citizens!

By:  Diane Benjamin At the Normal Town Council meeting last night many on the Council were appalled at Stan Nord’s comments concerning an email Pam Reece sent:  https://blnnews.com/2020/06/16/normal-the-lets-marginalize-stan-show/ Stan obviously stands alone in representing the people who voted for him.  The rest campaign as representing citizens and then fall in line with whatever the “professional […]

Bloomington: Can’t miss Public Comment

By:  Diane Benjamin 5:05 – Jon Reed was the only public comment.  Others emailed the Council.  I believe public comment isn’t for the Council – it is for the public.  Citizens will never know what other citizens said by emailing.  Get on the phone people! Jon did a great job taking down Jenn Carrillo (while […]

Normal: The let’s marginalize Stan show

By:  Diane Benjamin 9:00 – Stan pulled the bills for further discussion – particularly paying property taxes.  Pam Reece and attorney Brian Day didn’t have good answers for not filing paperwork to make them exempt.  14:45 Koos ends the conversation. Next was the contract with the McLean County Regional Planning Commission.  Stan wanted the same […]

Did Jenn make this comment?

By:  Diane Benjamin Maybe Jenn Carrillo can hop on her official Facebook page and deny she made this comment on my site: Doesn’t this sound just like her? America has survived for almost 244 years without socialism being “existentially necessary”. Have we lost the battle?  Not as long as the 2nd Amendment exists.  That’s why […]

More on “the list”

By:  Diane Benjamin Since the list contains obvious lies I’m not going to post the un-redacted version.    https://blnnews.com/2020/06/14/we-are-at-war/ Many people want to know who is on the list so they can frequent these establishment.  Remember when Chic-Fil-A was targeted and supporters stood in long lines just to show their support?  https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/chick-fil-supporters-gather-appreciation-day/story?id=16904664 Jenn Carrillo claims […]